In a perfect world, theatre tickets would be cheap like borscht and we would merrily feast on everything that was served up. But reality is otherwise–it can cost several hundred dollars for a family-night-out these days–and we find ourselves wondering: but will it be worth it?

Cirque du Soleil has always been a get-what-you-pay-for proposition. Lay down the price of admission–$45 to $230 depending on your age and seating preferences–and prepare for a super-sized theatrical experience: bigger laughs, bigger thrills, bigger magic.

I took my 10-year-old niece to the Grand Chapiteau at Concord Place near Science World. This is kid who has never seen a vintage Ringling Brothers spectacle; she wasn’t even born when Cirque’s original stilt-walking clowns wowed crowds at the Canada Pavilion during Expo ’86. (A lot of people still don’t know that Montreal-based Cirque is a Canadian enterprise.)

This is a kid who is so used to cinematic green-screens and motion capture and special effects that I think it took at least the first 20 minutes before she really grasped the wonder of what she was seeing.

Those people goofing around in silly costumes, hurling themselves through space, folding themselves in half, riding bicycles on tightropes right in front of her eyes? Those were real people. Real, talented, fit, beautiful, crazy people.

By the time the second half rolled around–quite literally with a dare-devil aerial act called the Wheel of Death–she was flushed pink with excitement. A clown pick-pocketed an unsuspecting audience member. An acrobat upended himself on a two-storey-high stack of chairs.

And when the stilt-walkers started vaulting through the air, she climbed into my lap, exhausted by awe.

Myself, I never tire of Cirque productions: one-size-fits-all entertainment of the highest calibre.

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3 Responses to Huzzah for Kooza!

Fiona

Saturday, 24 Jul 2010 1:37 pm

I remember going with my parents to see Ringling Bros, and also the Moscow Circus.
Years later, I realized the horror of a bear riding a bicycle. Or was it a unicycle? Doesn’t matter. Humans can be so terrible.
We’re sending our kids to Cirque next month, and I know they’ll be blown away, as I was the first time I saw it live. And, thankfully, they won’t be having flashbacks to whips and flames and muzzles.

Leeann

Saturday, 24 Jul 2010 11:13 pm

I am going tomorrow with my 5 yr old and my 18 yr old babysitter and we all can’t wait!

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